Dallas Garbage Truck Accident Attorney
We all know what garbage trucks are for – they pick up waste and trash across Dallas or any other city and transport it to landfills or recycling facilities. You have probably seen at least one of those garbage trucks in your neighborhood this week, or, if you weren’t lucky, you may have collided with a garbage truck and are looking forward to recovering damages.
Here at Law Office of Dorothy Hyde, our Dallas garbage truck accident attorney has decades of experience in dealing with garbage truck companies and their insurance companies in Dallas and all across Texas. We have seen it all: bad faith insurance tactics used to minimize or deny legitimate claims, trucking companies destroying or tampering with key evidence, and truck drivers who constantly come up with all kinds of excuses to escape liability.
But each time our lawyer took a case to represent victims of a garbage truck accident, there was only one outcome: our client received the so-needed financial compensation for their injury and resulting damages.
Why garbage trucks are so dangerous to collide with
Garbage trucks, also known as waste collection vehicles (WCV) and waste disposal vehicles (WDV), pick up waste and trash from residential homes and commercial properties to make our cities cleaner. Since garbage trucks are rather bulky, heavy, difficult to maneuver, and have numerous blind spots, this makes them prone to being involved in motor vehicle accidents with other vehicles.
Our experienced garbage truck accident attorney in Dallas explains that colliding with a waste collection vehicle can lead to catastrophic and disastrous consequences if you are driving a passenger car, riding on a motorcycle or winstrol results after 2 weeks bicycle, or walking on foot as a pedestrian.
In fact, an average passenger car weigh around two tons, while an average garbage truck in Texas can weigh up 32 tons (that’s 16 times more!). The consequences can be deadly when a garbage truck hits a pedestrian. This scenario is not uncommon since these vehicles collect trash and recyclables in neighborhoods, alleyways, and other residential areas.
Causes of garbage truck accidents
Although motor vehicle accidents involving garbage trucks can be caused by a variety of factors, including a truck driver getting distracted by a cockroach inside the vehicle, the most common causes of garbage truck accidents are as follows:
- Distracted driving (texting and driving, talking on the phone, or cockroaches, among other things that take the driver’s attention away from the task of safe driving)
- Exceeding the speed limit
- Backing up without checking blind spots
- Overloaded or overweight garbage trucks
- Improperly loaded or secured loads
- Drowsy driving or driver fatigue
- Failure to yield the right of way
- Poorly inspected and maintained garbage trucks
- Defective garbage trucks or their parts and components
- Unsafe lane changes
- Failure to warn of the driver’s intention to change lanes, turn, or performing a backing maneuver
- Traveling in an incorrect lane when picking up trash and
- Violating traffic rules
Regardless of what was the cause of your garbage truck accident, you will have to prove negligence on the part of the garbage truck driver, trucking company, the driver’s employer, government entity (city, municipality, or county) or other parties involved. In fact, in many cases, multiple parties can be held responsible when you get injured in a car crash involving a garbage truck.
Who can be held responsible for your accident with a garbage truck depends on who owns and maintains this vehicle. If it’s a government or public entity (city, municipality, or county), you will need to be represented by a Dallas garbage truck crash lawyer, because the process of suing a government entity is very different from the process of suing a private waste management company or private garbage trucking company.
Schedule a free consultation with our personal injury lawyers from Law Office of Dorothy Hyde to discuss your case and determine liable parties. Call our offices at (214) 883-1700 today.